


Who Am I

by Erisette



Series: Dolls [2]
Category: Akdong Musician, Oh My Girl (Band), VIXX, f(x)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cameos, Fairy Tale Elements, Found Families, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Skinship, Team as Family, Voodoo Doll (MV), general nastiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-14 19:50:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13597143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erisette/pseuds/Erisette
Summary: A journey in 6 steps and 6 names: how dolls become people.





	1. Windy Day

**Author's Note:**

> Because I also wanted to know what happened next; a journey in the mode of a fairy tale. Each chapter takes place in the environment from a different K-pop MV (or two), with various cameos from AU/fairy-tale versions of the artists therein. 
> 
> With thanks to XIL, who let me complain when I got stuck.

_ (Who am I ?) _

_ I am lost, looking for myself _   
_ with the weight of my deep worries _   
_ Where am I going? My deep thoughts _   
_ become more and more dull _   
_I look in the mirror but I can’t see_   
_ my instincts that I can’t hide _   
_ I follow the moon and see the _   
_ beautifully shining picture that embraces me _

_ Hands up high to the sky _   
_Hands up spread your wings_   
_Follow the starlight_

_ I am wandering, looking for myself, do it again _   
_I still want it, do it again_   
_I am wandering and looking, do it again_   
_I keep wanting it, do it again_

__ A young child who walks on white snow,  
 _an adult child who can’t smile_  
 _Like water, like the stars, I flow,_  
 _flow, flow, like this winter_  
 _Like my habits, I want to_  
 _naturally look at my face_  
 _A repetition of realizations, it’s time_   
_to cross the doorsill of that high room_

_ I brush off my clothes that _   
_became dust, pain is like a passing wind_   
_I got to go, climb on top of my dreams,_   
_feel so good, following that path_

_ I am wandering, looking for myself, do it again _   
_I still want it, do it again_   
_I am wandering and looking, do it again_   
_I keep wanting it, do it again_

_ Hands up high to the sky _   
_Hands up spread your wings_

_ Follow the starlight _   
_Follow the starlight_   
_Follow the starlight_   
_Follow the starlight_

_ -"Who Am I" by B1A4 _

 

 [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/40091621402/in/dateposted-public/)

 

The shapes around them had changed as the light grew brighter and brighter, from walls of stone and brick to taller and taller shapes of green and brown and other colors none of them were sure of the names for. Moss was running back and forward, ranging all around them as they moved forward in a group, and Inked had taken to holding his hand to try and slow down his movement. "But _Iiiiiiinked_ ," he said, looking at him sorrowfully through his lashes, "I want to see them all! Don't you want to see them all? They're trees, aren't they. Aren't they beautiful? They're the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I want to see them all."

"We can see most of them from here," Tallest said: he had offered his back to her favorite when he started stumbling on the uneven ground he couldn't see, and was moving carefully so as not to jostle him as his hurts healed.

"They _are_ beautiful," Smallest agreed, swinging his and Broken's clasped hands between them. "You all are more beautiful, though."

Moss slowed and allowed himself to be pulled back into the group. "I'm beautiful?" He asked. "I've never thought about being beautiful before."

"You don't have to think about it," Smallest said. "You just are."

"Really?" Moss seemed to consider it seriously for a while, brow furrowed, as he looked them all over. ("Cute," Inked whispered beside him.) "Okay," he said eventually. "I think I understand. Isn't her favorite the most beautiful, don't you think? If you don't want to be called her favorite, should we call you Beautiful?" Her favorite laughed, tucking his face into the back of Tallest's neck to muffle the sound.

"What is it?" Tallest asked, with a laugh in his voice too. "You think it's a silly name?" Her favorite shook his head, still laughing, and gestured weakly for them to move on. He had not stopped giggling, softly, as they walked again.

"Let's call you Laughter," Broken said unexpectedly, his quiet voice clear in the silence of the woods. "Until you find something you like more, at least."

Her favorite looked up, still smiling, and turned his face in Broken's general direction. "Laughter?" He tilted his head sideways and closed his strange eyes. "Laughter. It will do."

 

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/39022610094/in/dateposted-public/) 

 

They walked for some time, until their legs hurt too much to walk more. None of them had ever walked so far before. When they stopped and sat down it was in a little clearing in the forest, with a small round circle of blue sky visible far above: they turned their faces up to it and breathed, recovering. It was Laughter who broke the silence, saying, "What is that?"

"What is what?" Moss asked.

Laughter gestured into the woods, away and to the right. "There. Is it a person?" They knew his eyes didn't work as eyes should, but he also hadn't been wrong yet, so they turned as one and looked in the direction of his pointing finger.

"Red!" Moss blurted. "Like blood. It's bright! Do trees bleed?"

"I think it is a person," Smallest said slowly, rising to his feet and frowning in the direction of that blood-bright flicker of movement. He bit his lips, frowning still, and wavered a half-step.

"If it's a person, this is their place," Inked said lowly. "Are we...intruding? Will they be angry?" Smallest breathed out through his nostrils sharply and a determined look settled over his face.

"There is no way to find out but to go and...ask. We needn't all go; wait here." He turned his feet towards the figure but wasn't more than three steps out when he stopped to look back and up at Tallest, who was behind him and looking resolute. Their expressions were very similar as they looked at each other. Tallest didn't say anything, and Smallest sighed again but allowed himself to be followed.

It was amazing how Laughter had managed to sense the other presence, as far away as it was: it took Smallest and Tallest dozens and dozens of steps to get close enough to identify the red figure as indeed a person. The person kept a straight rough-barked tree between them and it, but was still clearly visible because of the sweep of red clothing. Smallest stopped when they were still a dozen steps away, and cleared his throat. "Hello," he tried. "Are you there? Do you speak? We don't plan to hurt you. If you are upset because we're in your woods, we are sorry. We're just trying to find somewhere far away from where we were."

"The stone edifice," the other answered: a mellow, feminine voice with a curious lilt at the ends. "When the wind turns, it brings a smell like rot. It smelled like smoke, yesterday."

"We set it on fire," Smallest said. The stranger had unsettled him, slightly, but with Tallest at his side it was was hard to be afraid. "It won't smell of rot any more, I think."

The girl laughed, a sound that made them jump. "Good! I'm glad." She came out from behind the tree and smiled at them, slender and strong with only a little wicked in the smile. "There is more of you?"

"Yes," Smallest said. It was pointless to lie, with the others visible clearly at some distance. The girl nodded, turning to the side and bending at the waist to look past them. The ends of her long hair brushed the ground and brought bits of leaf with them as she straightened and stepped lightly around, Smallest and Tallest hurrying to follow. They all three came together to the little clearing where the other four that were his waited--now standing, and looking as unsettled as he'd first felt at the sight of that lovely, inscrutable face. She stood back as they reformed as six, Moss darting forward to wrap his arms posessively around Smallest's waist and Broken hooking a hand over Tallest's elbow.

"You all come from the edifice," she said; it wasn't a question, so they didn't answer. She nodded. "You haven't seen my sisters, have you? There are seven of them: they wear red and white, and all but one has long hair like me: and they should all be starting to grow, too." She scrubbed at the top of her head with her hands, a look of discomfort lighting on her face.

They all thought of the woman in the edifice, but if any of them suspected her of being one of the ones this girl was looking for they didn't speak up. "We left together," Laughter said. "You are the first one we've met since." The girl nodded again, then looked sharply up into the trees. A look of ancitipation chased all the discomfort off her face and she broke into a wild smile.

"It's coming!" she sang out, and brushed past them to the center of the little clearing where there was a fat moss-covered stump. She hopped up on it and crouched there, head thrown back and eyes curling into happy crescents. Her skirts were moving, more blood-like than ever in their flowing motion, and her hair also flung itself out of her face. "Unless you're very strong you might want to hold on to something," she said. Then it was upon them: wind, sudden and inescapable, an invisible force like and unlike the ones that had tugged them around back in the underground chambers with _her_. Inked yelped and dragged Laughter down with him into the leaf litter, and the others soon followed as the wind moved beyond pushing to trying to drag them bodily away. They clung, to the ground and to each other, as the breath was ripped out of them and the world became a howling tunnel, for a small eternity...then it ended, as suddenly as it began.

"It's gone for now," the girl said. She was still on her stump, evidently unmoved, her hair a glorious tangle and her expression almost disappointed somehow. "It won't be that strong again for a while."

"Is that what happened to the ones you're looking for?" Smallest asked, concerned and picking bits of twig out of a ruffled Broken's hair. Inked's sweater had unraveled still further, and he tried to gather the trailing strands back into order.

"They wouldn't be taken by the _wind_ ," the girl said, sounding offended. She hopped down from the stump and shook herself, her hair and clothes falling back into their original untangled state. "They don't like it like I do, but they are too strong to be taken in that way. No, they tried to shelter themselves from it in the maze: and they didn't come out." She rubbed at her head again, contemplative and a little sad, now. "Wherever you go next, you shouldn't go in the maze."

"Thank you for the advice," Tallest said with dignity. He had finished brushing the worst of the debris off of Laughter, and now stood and offered a hand to Moss who was still lying on his back spread-eagle to look at the unchanged blue sky high above.

"...I think I like it," Moss said, ignoring the hand. "The wind. It's very exciting! Wasn't it a nice smell that came with it? Can we go see where the smell came from? It was dangerous, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I like it. I like wind. Can I be called Wind?"

"I'll just call you Loud again if you don't stand up and stop talking," Tallest grumbled as he hauled him bodily upright: but his big hands were gentle, and brushed leaves out of his hair as carefully as Smallest was still doing with the others.

"It came from the east," the girl said. "It usually comes from the west. You can go east if you like: it was the trees in that direction that you smelled, probably. I don't like them but there is nothing wrong with them. And things fetch up against them, things pulled there by the wind from the west, that may be of use to you." She seemed to be losing interest in them, and edged into the woods back in the direction from which she'd come. "If you see my sisters," she said, "please tell them to come back. It is very dull, here, without them."

"We will," Broken said. She looked up at the sound of his voice and smiled, and for the first time the smile had nothing wicked in it at all.

"Thank you," she said to him, then turned and ran on light bare feet until the unmoving trunks swallowed all sight of her up.

They finished getting each other into order and then looked at each other. They looked to Laughter, first: then turned to Smallest, who held Wind's hand and smiled at them. "To the east, then? Away is away, and we can try and find Wind's nice smell." No one had any objections: so they went.

 

 

The light was beginning to dim in earnest when they found what the girl had been talking about. There was a thinning of the woods into gold-grassed field, and at the other side a different wood sprung up, darker and more dense, but welcoming somehow. The border of this new wood was also a mess of debris, all the things blown there by the wind and tangled up in the branches and undergrowth. Broken made an interested noise in his throat and split off from them to stretch up and pull something from where it was snagged on a limb: a sweater, but one much larger and softer than his own, heathered brown and gold. He shed his old one without regret, shivering briefly as goosebumps arose on the skin that wasn't scarred, and drew on the new clothing with a pleased hum. Whe it was on, he pulled the sleeves down over his hands and looked over at the others and smiled. It was a faint, close-mouthed smile, but they had never seen such an expression on Broken's face before. (Smallest's strangled gasp of delight was quickly muffled in his own hands, to save Broken from self-conciousness) "You all should get something too," he told them, and they started to look through the debris in earnest.

As it turned out, he had gotten lucky with his first find: most of the clothes to be found were not in as good shape, and most of the others were not big enough for them. A pair of sturdy trousers went to Tallest, whose own were in a sad state: a white shirt, only a little torn, went to Inked with his almost-deconstructed sweater. The others abandoned their search when it started to get too dark to see, settling for their scant finds: a pair of mismatched sturdy shoes for Wind, a warm knitted hat for Laughter. They forged a little deeper into the sweet-smelling wood until Laughter stopped them, pointing out a small dark entrance the others missed that led to a hidden shelter under the low-hanging branches of a forest giant. They arranged themselves on the ground beneath, folding into a knot of layered bodies. She had rarely left two or more of them together, usually sending each back to his individual cell at the end of the day: when they did end up not alone one or more of them was usually strung up, unable to truly rest, but they had still curled together as much as possible and each of them had at least one secretly treasured memory of a quiet night spent almost peaceful in the presence of another. Most of them fell asleep quickly, exhausted by the day's events--except for Inked, who was at the outer edge of the pile, sitting up and gently stroking Laughter's hair where his head lay in his lap.

He started as Smallest's voice broke the silence: "What is it?"

"It..." he trailed off, looking up at the low roof of branches over their heads. "I like these trees better than the other ones. They feel more comforting, somehow. The leaves look soft but are tough, and the bark looks rough but smells good."

"Hmm. I like them too," Smallest agreed, after a moment's thought. "They are...cedar?" He made a face, thinking about it for a moment, then nodded decisively. "Yes, that's right. Cedar."

"Cedar. Yeah." Inked petted Laughter's hair once more, then looked over at Smallest, his sleepy eyes somehow shy. "Do you think...." He didn't finish his thought, and Smallest gently threw a twig at his head. It missed but snapped him out of his lull and he chuckled quietly. "Do you think I could be called Cedar?"

"I don't see why not," Smallest said, and smiled a kind, proud smile at him. "Hello, Cedar." Cedar blushed, ducking into the collar of his new white shirt, and shifted to lie down and curl into the heap of softly breathing bodies. "Good night, Cedar," Smallest said, and joined him in much-needed sleep.


	2. 4 Walls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is FANART for this chapter!! *dying cat sounds* http://x-i-l-verify.tumblr.com/post/171755559705 

* * *

 

 

 

They woke suddenly but got up slowly, disentangling limbs and lingering to lean against each other. "I've never slept like that before," Tallest murmured.

"She was the one that sustained us," Laughter said. "It will be different now, I think. We will have to do for ourselves."

"Good," said Smallest stoutly, over the others' expressions of growing worry. "That's how you know a thing is alive--it sleeps and eats and drinks and grows. Isn't it nice to know that we're alive? And sleeping was fine...I was warm and comfortable, even if Wind's hair was in my face." Wind squawked in protest, but allowed himself to be soothed by Cedar's arms around his waist.

"Will we grow?" Tallest asked, intrigued.

" _You_ did," Broken said quietly. When the others looked at him, surprised, he merely lifted one shoulder and sheltered himself behind Smallest's slighter body.

"I remember when Cedar was tallest," Wind said, appearing startled by his own memory. "Isn't that funny? I feel like I didn't know that but I'm remembering it."

"It doesn't do to think too hard about how you know the things you know," Laughter said. His voice was dry. "Things are hard enough."

"Not too hard," Tallest said steadily. "And they'll get easier. Are we going forwards? Where?" Laughter shrugged, and Smallest held his hand.

"On," he said. "Does it matter, as long as it's away?"

 

 [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/27953087579/in/album-72157668553426829/)

 

They walked for a long time, but more slowly now without the pressure of the place they came from so close at their backs. Cedar's cedar trees remained present, gnarled and sweet-smelling, but became mixed with more trees of other kinds as well. The slow progress let them examine their surroundings in more detail. The woods were starting to be more full of life, either because the creatures liked these kinds of trees better or because it was far away from the rot of the edifice...which had been more than just a smell, Laughter at least was sure. Some of the things were scurrying, furry beasts--mice and squirrels and chipmunks and something very soft-looking that none of them had a name for--and some of them were birds, feathered and quick and screaming more beautifully than Wind ever had.

"Look at that one!" Wind said, bouncing a little on his toes as he pointed at the bird in question. "Its feathers are beautiful. It's brown and black...it's a sparrow, isn't it? It looks like you, a little, Smallest. It's beautiful. Do you want to be called Sparrow?" Smallest laughed and shook his head, but fondly.

"No thank you, Wind. I think I will know the name I want when I see it, and I don't think it's 'sparrow'. They are cute, though."

"Well then they don't match you after all," Laughter said, and Smallest glared at him although his eyes still smiled.

"What would you know? You can't even see them properly!" To his words Laughter just shrugged in response, apparently unbothered.

  
They rested once or twice but walked until the forest was the brightest they'd ever seen it. They stopped at the edge of a place where the trees thinned out when Laughter held out his arms to halt them. "What is it?" Broken asked, but Laughter just made a face in response. "We may as well go on if you don't know what it is," Broken said, and no one could think of a reason why not. They went two by two, Smallest and Tallest at the head, and came into a clearing--but not an empty one, since there was a building in the center of it, nothing like the size of the place they'd come from but so obviously constructed by human hands that they were all frozen in place watching it as though looking away would make it move. As they were frozen watching, the door opened and a slender woman with short silvery hair stepped out and looked back at them.

"Hello?" The woman said. "Can I help you?"

"I don't know! _Can_ you?" Wind blurted, and promptly had his mouth covered by Cedar's hand.

"What he means," Smallest put in, "is that we probably do need some help but we don't know what we need. And we don't know if we should trust you, or if we can."

"Would you _want_ to help us?" Tallest added, and the woman looked over all of them, the three who had spoken and the three who hadn't.

"...why would I know if I could trust _you_?" She pointed out finally, after she'd looked her fill. "Six strange men, all bigger than me or my sisters, here at our house where people rarely come." She paused, but they had no answer: at their silence she softened, and a smile curled the corners of her mouth upwards and made her look very unlike either of the women they'd met before. "Guess we'll just have to risk it, huh? I'm not inclined to turn down the company. Or...you can leave." She drew back into the house, but called out to them: "If you'd like to come in, though, I'll make you all some tea."

In the stillness following her retreat, Broken came up behind Smallest and slipped his own hand into his. "I would like to try tea."

They went in.

The air inside was still, but in a way that was more peaceful than stifling: ahead and to the right were small industrious noises of clanking and rattling, and they followed them, still two by two although more cramped in the hallway, which was not wide. The hallway opened into a clean, white space, everything sharp-edged and shining in the light that filtered through filmy white curtains. The woman was placing something in the center of a table by the windows, and she pointed at it as she went over to the stove on the opposite wall. "You can have some bread, if you like. Cinnamon-raisin, if you care." She reached the counter and turned to lean against it, arms crossed. "I'm Amber, by the way."

"We are Smallest, and Broken, Laughter and Cedar, Wind and Tallest," Smallest said, and the woman's eyebrows disappeared up into her fringe of hair.

"...nice to meet you," she said. She watched them as they sat around the table, carefully, reaching one by one into the basket and pulling out pieces of bread that they turned slowly over in their hands, feeling the texture, looking at the little dark specks of raisin and drawing the bits up to their noses to sniff. "What, never had raisin bread before?"

"We don't eat food, usually. Maybe we will now," Cedar said.

"When you've had food and drink the blood flows more," Tallest said wisely. "So it can make more of a mess. But if Laughter is right we will need to eat, so..." he put his own morsel of bread in his mouth and chewed it slowly, thoughtfully. When it was chewed into near-nothingness he swallowed and smiled at the other ones around the table. "It's good," he assured them. Broken hadn't needed any encouragement but the others took him at his word and ate as well.

"Thank you!" Wind said to the woman, Amber. Her eyebrows hadn't returned to visibility and there was a strange expression on her face, but she brought over a tray loaded with porcelain, setting it down carefully on the table near Cedar's elbow.

"You are welcome...Wind, wasn't it?" He nodded, mouth full again, and she started pouring out the tea into the cups, including a seventh for herself. She talked calmly and constantly as she set out the cups before them, cautioning them to blow on the hot liquid before they drank it, offering sugar and lemon and cream, telling them that the cream would curdle if they added it and lemon both. When everyone had his own cup she sat down on the counter with her cup and sipped it slowly, taking in their reactions.

The results were mixed: no one hated it, and no one left any in their cups, but only Tallest, Smallest, and Wind showed real enthusiasm to the taste. "I _love_ tea!" Wind said when his cup was empty. He chased the last drops around the cup with his tongue, and licked his finger to pick up the grains of sugar in the saucer. "It tastes like the outdoors, but if you add the milk and sugar it tastes like this house. It's wonderful. I want to drink it again. Can I be called Tea?"

"I can make some more," Amber offered. Her expression was still a little odd, but her brows were no longer drawn up and one corner of her mouth was lifted. "It's no trouble. And if anyone wants to take a bath, they can: you all look like you've been through the wars. There's a bathroom with a shower down the hall here, and another one upstairs--you'll have to be quiet if you use that one though, one of my sisters is asleep in the room near it."

"A bath," Smallest said thoughtfully. He turned the word over in his mind for a moment, then smiled brilliantly. "Yes. We'd like baths." Cedar made a discontented noise, and Smallest stopped smiling to give him an unimpressed look. "You're first," he said; since his tone brooked no argument Cedar went off, down the hallway and taking Laughter with him.

"Leave your clothes outside the door while you're in," Amber called after them, "And I'll see what I can do about getting those clean too."

When they were gone, and Tea to the upstairs bath, Smallest and Broken and Tallest scoured the last of the bread out of the basket while Amber retrieved the others' clothing. "Your faces have more color now," Smallest said, as proud as if he had put the color there himself. "Food and drink must be important for you. We'll have to get it whenever we can."

"Like I said," Tallest said, methodically eating all the slices of lemon that had escaped their teacups. "It makes the blood flow." Broken turned in his chair, and wordlessly stretched out his legs, and Tallest hummed and nodded. "Mm, yes."

Amber announced her presence with a word none of them knew, and dropped the other three's suddenly-clean clothes on the counter before striding over to crouch and inspect Broken's foot, which was slowly creating a puddle as it dripped. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Broken shrugged, and Smallest answered for him: "He stepped on something in the woods outside. Is it healing, Broken?" Broken nodded in reply, and Amber sat back on her heels and gave them a completely blank look before standing back up to retrieve something from a cabinet. She came back with a little tangle of white cloth that she muttered over a second before starting to wrap it around Broken's slowly bleeding foot.

"I have a lot of questions and I don't want _any_ of them answered," she said under her breath as she tied off the binding.

" _I_ have a question," Smallest asked. "Are you a witch?"

She went to the sink and rinsed off her hands. "It's as good a word as any, I guess." They didn't reply other than to nod, Broken gently tapping his wrapped foot against the ground to test for pain. The sound of flowing water down the hall tapered off, and she bundled up the clothes and set them in front of Smallest. "Can you take these to your friends? Then the next one can get in--or next two, if you'd like." She pointed at Broken. "You, though, shouldn't get that bandage wet. If you don't mind, I'll try and do something like I did with the clothes." Broken hugged his arms to his chest but nodded, and she started her work.

When they were all clean and gathered, Amber herded them into the largest room of the downstairs, lined with shelves and seating, with an incredibly soft grey rug in the center, and left them there saying that she was going to get her sister from upstairs. They sank down to sit on the rug, studying each other in their freshly scrubbed and blood-flush states. Cedar's hair was so black it glinted blue, they noticed now, and Smallest's skin was darker and warmer than anyone else's; both Tea and Broken had ghostly freckles dappled across nose and cheeks, and Broken had them on his shoulders too. They sat back-to-back-to-back in the middle of the rug, shoulders pressed together and an uneven hole in the middle, legs sprawled outwards (Cedar and Tallest and Tea) or tucked neatly (Smallest and Broken and Laughter). They weren't waiting long, before their hostess rejoined them with her sister. They looked up as one, studying the new woman: she was skinnier than Amber, with long sand-brown hair and a mouth and eyes that looked thoughtful.

"Hello," she said to them all, not unkindly, but less warm and more abstracted than her sister. "Amber says we're helping you?" She was interrupted by a scratching noise, and a small river of little furry creatures poured around and through her ankles. She smiled down at the interruption.

"Cats!" Tea said, delighted. "They're cats, right? They're all different colors!"

"They're cats all right," Amber said drily.

"One is big and the rest are much smaller," Tallest noted with interest. "They're two different kinds of cats?"

"Baby cats," Broken contributed out of nowhere, and both witches laughed.

"Kittens," the long-haired woman corrected, "But yes." The cat and kittens made a straight line to a nest of cushions in the corner and Broken left the circle, laying on his belly to be smaller and using his elbows to pull himself closer to the little things. They tolerated his approach.

"My sister, Luna," Amber said, "Knows a lot more than me about some things. Did you have any questions--any particular kind of help you think you need?"

"Laughter's and Cedar's eyes," Tea said, serious and a little sad. "They don't work as eyes should. Can you fix them?" Amber and Luna both approached the cluster of men, and each bent down to peer into a set of black-crossed eyes.

"Mine aren't so bad," Cedar said gruffly. "If I really need to..." He closed his eyes and frowned, focusing, and when he opened them they were normal dark human-type eyes. Luna made interested noises and bent closer til her own eyes were a bare inch from his. "They'll go back in a while, but even when they're hexed they work more like human eyes than Laughter's do."

"I can see things," Laughter put in, a little awkwardly: "Just not everything anyone else can."

"And some things they can't?" Amber said, knowingly. Laughter didn't answer, but didn't deny it either. The two witches moved to sit on the couch by the door, stepping carefully around Broken's long legs as they did so--he was still coaxing the kittens, and seemed to have convinced the cat that he wasn't a threat."There is nothing that we can do for that particular problem." Amber exchanged a long glance with Luna. "Unless you know--?"

Luna's eyes lost their focus for a long moment, then she sighed, rubbing at her lower lip with one fingertip. "There are...certain places. Not too far from here, at least the way that distance is reckoned in a world like this, unless I am mistaken." She was silent for a long minute.

"Where?" Smallest asked.

"I don't quite know," Luna answered him slowly. "We don't really...leave here. We can't, really, or at least we always come back. But I know some things, for all that, and this is one of those things; there are certain orchards that people would do well to be wary of. Orchards of golden apples, or silver peaches, or vines with berries like gems. The ones that reach for those fruits out of greed reap a very different sort of harvest. But in those sort of orchards, sometimes, maybe only once in a hundred years, a person who can ignore the temptation and keep looking can find an apple, or a peach, or a berry, that is natural in appearance and has the scent of a real living thing. It is said that a person who goes into such a grove and ignores everything else for that one real fruit can be cured of any ailment or curse."

"Just _one_ fruit?" Tallest said.

Luna looked between Cedar and Laughter, and smiled a little crooked smile. "Yes."

"Couldn't we just share?" Cedar asked, and the witches looked at him very kindly.

"These sorts of things don't work that way," Amber said. There was a long moment of contemplative silence, broken only by a faint huff of laughter from Broken as one of the kittens climbed up onto his head.

"Well, you are welcome to spend the night," Amber said, brisk and straightforward again. "Normally a host lets the guest take the beds while they take the couch, but I don't think you would fit on our beds. If we brought bedding would you be comfortable in the living room here?" They nodded, and she stood up, clapping her hands together. "I'll be back in just a moment with that bedding, then." As she left, Tea stretched out and rolled on his back, tilting his head back to look at the door.

"I don't think we would be able to pull Broken away from his friends, anyway."

Broken looked up, with an unreadable expression in his dark eyes, before sitting up slowly and drawing the cat into his lap where it started to purr softly. Smallest smiled at him, even though he had no way of seeing it. "You are telling me with your back, right now, that you want something, I know: but you will need to tell me with your mouth if you want me to understand more than that."

The cat's purr filled the silence, and two of the kittens started climbing up Broken's sweater. "I like them," he finally said softly.

"We can see that," Tallest replied, and Broken curled down over his lap and didn't say anything else. Smallest hit Tallest, face stern.

"I like them too!" Tea said supportively. "They are very cute, and they look soft. They must have sharp claws, though, to climb you like that!"

"Broken," Laughter said, and for once he sounded not even a little bit teasing, "Do you want to be called Cat?"

Broken uncurled, looking over his shoulder at them. "No," he said. His expression firmed, and he touched the kitten in front of him very gently on the end of its nose.

Luna laughed, and they looked at her in surprise. "Wouldn't you rather be called Cat?" She asked. "Or better yet--there are a lot of big cats with interesting names. Lion, Tiger, Leopard...." Broken, stubborn, turned his face away from her.

"He likes the kittens," Smallest said knowingly, and crawled over on his hands and knees to sit behind his friend, legs to either side of his body and chin rested on his shoulder. "I like them too. Kitten is better than Broken, anyway."

Kitten didn't say anything, but he looked down at his purring lapful, and smiled.


	3. (나의 옛날 동네)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> setting is AkMu's Dinosaur

* * *

 

 

In the morning they were given more bread, and tea. Amber told them the safest route to take if they wanted to continue moving east--apparently in this part of the woods there were places where things went...odd. As they filed out the door, Amber stopped Smallest with a hand on his shoulder. "Hey. If you ever, you know, need something..." she held out her hand for him to shake. "You all would be welcome back, you know. Eat something other than rasin bread."

"The bread was wonderful," he said, and smiled at her thankfully. "I won't forget." He released her hand and followed the others.

 

 [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/25319881017/in/dateposted-public/)

 

The woods started gradually to change again, the trees becoming bigger and bigger, spaced farther apart. There were also more signs of disturbances, marks dug in the ground and trees gouged by something that would have to be quite tall. They walked for a long time, mostly in comfortable silence, until at one point Tallest stopped, pulling at the sleeves of the ones closest to him to make them stop too. "Laughter, I feel something strange."

Laughter hummed. "I think I know what you mean. It's a feeling like...itchy, almost, or tight and uncomfortable? Do you know the word, Smallest?"

Smallest put a fist to his mouth, thinking. "Maybe...thirsty. Yes, I'm thirsty."

"Thirsty. That means we need water, right?" Tallest confirmed. "Where do we get water?" Laughter's hand shot out, pointing in a specific direction. Tallest's eyes widened. "Really?" Laughter just shrugged in response.

There was more walking, by which time they all felt the sensation of thirst, when they found what Laughter had sensed long before; a waterfall, big enough to make an impressive sound, and draining into a dark and cool-looking basin. "Water!" Tea said. "That's good, I don't like being thirsty. Water sounds wonderful. And it will make us stop being thirsty. It's amazing that it can do that. I want to be called Water."

"Not here, the sides are steep," Kitten cautioned them. "Closer to the falls?" Everyone saw the flat place he was referring to, and they picked their way there carefully. The narrow strip of gravel was close enough to the falls that they were becoming damp in the spray, but they gratefully went to the water and drew it up in their hands. Smallest drank it first, to see if it was what they wanted.

"It's good," he assured them. They all drank, just a mouthful each when they were interrupted by a small voice that called out,

"That's not safe! You can get sick drinking wild water like that!"

They all looked up, but couldn't see the source of the voice; nor did it say anything else. While the others finished their drink, Smallest replied, "We don't get sick, but we do get thirsty. Thank you for trying to warn us. Who are you? We are Smallest, and Kitten, Laughter and Cedar, Tea--that is, Water, and Tallest." There was another pause, in which everyone drew a little back from the shore to leave the spray. The reply, when it came, was a different voice.

"What are you doing here?"

A male voice, this time, and everyone started looking around in renewed interest. "Drinking," Laughter said. Smallest hit his arm, gently.

"We are passing through," Smallest said. "At first we were just going away, but now I am thinking we need to go _to_ somewhere, also. What are _you_ doing here?"

There wasn't a pause this time, before the first voice said, "Hiding!" It was closer, and they saw that it was coming from above them, where a rough climbable ramp led to a space behind the waterfall. In that space a head popped out, a girl with short hair and a sweet, inquisitive face. Another person jostled for space, appearing beside the girl--a boy, face a little less sweet and a little more inquisitive.

"Shut up," he said to the girl, "We're not hiding, we're just...staying out of the way. We're here to bring back proof of the dinosaurs. _That's_ what we're doing." The girl made a face beside him, and he couldn't have seen it but he thumped the back of her head anyway. "If you're just passing through I guess that's alright. You haven't seen the dinosaur that lives in the ocean, have you? That's the one I most particularly want to find evidence of."

"What is a dinosaur?" Water asked. The girl pointed outwards, at one of the trees that was particularly gouged high up on its trunk.

"Big," she said succinctly.

"We haven't seen any dinosaurs, then," Water said.

"Have you seen any sisters?" Kitten said. They both leaned farther out from behind the waterfall at his soft voice, and he made an effort to speak up: "There are seven sisters who are missing. They wear red and white, and have long hair, except for one. A girl in red is looking for them."

"This is the only sister I've seen," the boy replied, gently shoving the girl beside him, and the two of them rolled their eyes at each other. They emerged from the space behind the falls, holding each others' hands when they wavered a little on the precarious footing at the entrance. "I've made some discoveries other than dinosaurs around here. You wanna see?"

" _I_ want to see!" Water said.

The boy and his sister came down carefully, and then hesitated when they were on the same level at seeing how much taller the six men were than they. Water didn't notice their reluctance and came closer, bouncing on his toes and grinning at them. "What have you discovered? We are discovering a lot of new things every day, so many new things that we don't have words for a lot of them." The boy seemed drawn in by his enthusiasm, and his sister rolled her eyes and pushed him forward.

"Well...I mean, yes! This place is very interesting, and not just because of the dinosaurs--although the dinosaurs are why we're here, of course. There's little...flying, or maybe floating...here, look at this fern-thing, I'll show you what I mean." He wove through them and angled off into the forest, still talking: Water was right on his heels, dragging Cedar and Laughter with him, while Smallest and Kitten trailed indulgently behind. Tallest and the girl, left behind, looked at each other first awkwardly then with a growing warm sense of understanding. They followed after the others, although in no rush.

"My name is Soohyun, by the way, and his name is Chanhyuk."

"I'm Tallest," he said in return. She laughed into her hand, but he didn't know why so he let it pass, instead nodding ahead of them to where Chanhyuk was crouched next to some spiky plant, still talking away to the others. "You don't seem to be as excited about his discoveries." Soohyun laughed again, and arched up on her tiptoes to whisper in the direction of his ears:

"He can go kind of overboard, you know. The dinosaurs exist whether he 'proves it' or not--so why get all wound up about it? We could be at home warm in bed right now! But, you know--" she sank back down and shrugged. "He's my brother, you know?"

"Brother?" The word echoed in the space in his mind with all the other words that Tallest knew but hadn't learned, faintly meaningful but devoid of context. "No, I don't know."

She stopped walking and looked up at him, disbelieving. "You know...a brother. Brothers and sisters?"

"I know about sisters," he said. "I've met a lot of them. I haven't met a brother before."

"I thought _you_ were brothers," she said, very confused. "At least one or two of you." He must have still been visibly uncomprehending, because she wrinkled her nose at him but tried to explain. "You know, your brother is a boy who has the same parents as you. Usually you look alike. You grow up together, and understand each other, and have each other's backs...even if he can be kind of an idiot, a lot of times. A sister is the same thing, it's just a different word for girls."

Tallest looked between her and Chanhyuk, who had interrupted his explanation to wave at his sister, urging her over. "I think I understand," he said thoughtfully.

They all learned about Chanhyuk's discoveries for a while--Kitten and Cedar in particular liked the little floating furry things with the bright eyes--before they decided to part ways, the brother and sister continuing on to look for the sea while they kept heading East. "It seems like this place has all sorts of doors," Soohyun told them. "Some of them look more like doors than others. If you see a wooden door in the woods, near a tree with a forked trunk, please don't go through it--it goes to my bedroom."

"We won't," Cedar assured her.

They parted: and they walked for some time more, as the sky darkened, until they passed the door that she had spoken of. "Not that one," Smallest said, like any of them would have forgotten.

"I decided," Tallest said suddenly, and they all paused to look at him. He placed his wrists together, bringing his hands up to his face and resting his chin on them, uncharacteristically shy. "I'd like to be called Brother." He could see from most of their faces that the word was as well-known but meaningless as it had been for him, and he drew his hands back to scratch at the back of his neck. "It's like the witches, at the house, they were sisters...and brother and sister just now...and we're like brothers, aren't we? I just..." he shrugged. "I like it, is all."

"Of course," Kitten said, firmly, and went over to him to drape his arms over his wide shoulders. "Of course you can be called Brother."


	4. Chained/Beautiful

_"Hate has a reason for everything. But love is unreasonable."_   
_-My Enemy, My Ally_

 

 [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/39022610004/in/album-72157668553426829/)

 

The woods didn't end in a clearing, this time: they didn't thin out at all, but the rough path they were following abruptly ended in a concrete wall that went on to both sides as well as up and up. It was very like the edifice they had come from, just cement instead of brick, and a low strangled moan crawled out of Water's throat. He muffled it with his hands and Cedar pulled him protectively behind himself, as Kitten did the same to Laughter and Smallest tried to do to Brother but with no luck. "Laughter?" Smallest said, his voice deliberately calm. "How does it feel?"

"I don't...I don't know!" Laughter's face creased in frustration, and he reached past Kitten as if to touch the wall but had his hand slapped down protectively. "It feels...heavy. Can't you smell it?"

Cedar closed his eyes and inhaled deeply and slowly, trying to find the smell he was talking about, and when he opened them they had flipped to black-and-white Xs. "Yeah," he said. "I don't know what it is, but I do smell it."

"I think it's magic," Laughter said, leaning against Kitten's back and concentrating very hard. "It smells like magic. Not...dark? Not wholly, anyway. Just...heavy."

"Should we go around, then?" Brother asked. Smallest was still subtly trying to put himself between him and the wall, and he rolled his eyes and picked him up easily, setting him down behind Kitten and Laughter. "Just avoid it altogether?"

"I don't know if I want to just leave it unexplored at our backs," Cedar said slowly, reluctantly.

Smallest hit Brother on the back, scowling, then held his hand tightly. "Let's go around then, and if we find a door or something Laughter will tell us if it feels safe." They walked slowly, on high alert, and eventually found not a door but a back-and-forth staircase that led up the wall. They all waited for Laughter to tell them if they should go or not, and he grumbled as he tried to make a judgement one way or another.

"I don't think it's...dangerous?" He said at last. "Nothing like _her_ , at least."

"Well, I agree with Cedar that I don't want to leave it unexplored at our backs," Brother said firmly, and Smallest nodded in agreement.

"Let's at least go up and see how things look from there."

The stairs were too narrow to go two by two, but they walked like one creature, almost stepping on each others' heels. When they reached the top they spilled out onto the roof, which was bare and open, nearly shadowless in the strength of the sun directly overhead. "Oh, this isn't too bad," Water said gratefully. "It's kind of nice! Different! The sun is so strong, I like the shadows the tree leaves cast but the sun by itself is even better." He turned his face up to it, smiling, and the light cast his features into high relief and brought out the dappled freckles across his cheeks. "I love it. It's wonderful. I want to be called Sun."

"I still say we should just call you Loud," Brother said, but pulled him gently away from the edge of the roof.

There was a door, clearly marked, in the center of the roof; they wordlessly decided after coming this far it was silly to back away, and went down into the building one by one again, Brother at the front despite all attempts to dissuade him. This staircase spiraled downwards, farther than they'd walked up the outside, and spilled out into a large, round room draped in translucent white cloth. The light was dim but not unpleasant, and they stood together with their backs to the staircase and nudged Laughter. "Well?" Kitten asked him softly.

Laughter made a face. "Not my favorite," he said drily, "But not too bad. There hasn't been too much suffering here, I think...or the suffering was of a different kind. I couldn't explain it if I wanted to."

"Let's keep looking," Smallest decided, and hooked his elbow through Brother's so he couldn't go ahead alone. "See if there is anyone here."

There wasn't: or at least not that they could see. There were many strange rooms, with harsh lighting and sparse equipment, but no real signs of life: everything was clean and still, as if packed away and left behind. One of the rooms was awash in water that poured constantly from a cracked porcelain sink, and they all drank from that, trying to avoid becoming thirsty again. Another of the rooms was full of broken glass and lit pink and blue, strangely beautiful to the extent that they all stopped for a moment to look at it even though there was nothing useful there for them. Sun, incautious as always, lost his balance while bending to look at a particularly beautiful spiral pattern of cracks, and in catching himself tore open his knees on the sharp-edged glass. He screamed out, short and sharp, and squatted there for a moment to sulk. "I tore my pants!" Blood dripped bright across the mirrors, quick-flowing with the water they had drank.

"Fool," Smallest said lovingly, and hauled him up, carrying him on his back and stepping carefully himself, so light-footed he didn't crack any more glass even holding another person's weight. Kitten's long fingers quickly picked the shards of glass out of Sun's legs as he whined about it, and the others waited by the door, ready to move on.

All of the rooms were empty and none of them were welcoming, but at the end of a long hallway there was another staircase winding down. They went down this one too, spilling out into a white hallway lined with opened doors, brightly-lit and clean. Laughter didn't wait for a question this time, just shrugged. "Less suffering, more magic, maybe? It doesn't feel dangerous, though." They trusted his insight and explored these rooms as well: equally empty to those upstairs, but less packed-away, as if whoever left these rooms did so with less time and planning. One of the rooms had a warm fire, carefully contained but burning steadily, that Sun didn't want to leave. Cedar stayed with him beside it as the others finished exploring. One of the other rooms was like a little square of the woods had been picked up and moved inside, and Laughter stood in the doorway of that room for a long time.

"What is it?" Brother asked quietly, eyes alert for anything wrong.

"There's a bit of...wind," Laughter said, frowning. "Is there another door in here?" The other ones put their eyes to good use, stepping past him into the room and examining it top to bottom. Kitten was the one who found the source of the breeze; a door, tucked behind vines and open the smallest crack. They wrestled it fully open together and crowded in the doorframe to see where it led.

"One of the doors," Smallest said, "Not a normal building door." Clearly so: it opened into a room, but a room brightly lit with sunlight and full of differently colored flowers, unlike the dim and blue-ish room it connected to.

"That seems more welcoming," Kitten said. "Should we get the others and go through? I am getting tired, but it might be more comfortable to rest there."

Laughter interrupted Smallest before he could speak, saying, "The smell, though...I don't like the smell...."

"I don't smell anything," Brother said. "Can you describe it?"

Laughter was silent for a while, eyes scrunched shut and head tilted. "Deceptive," he said finally. "And maybe a little rot." Everyone else drew back at that estimation, and Smallest gently closed the door.

"Well, let's sleep in Sun's fire-room for now, then," he said, "And move on after when we're rested." So they did, though first they made a trip back up the stairs to tear some of the sheer curtains down from the round room and bring them to cushion the hard ground of the fire room.

 

 [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/39022609984/in/album-72157668553426829/)

 

Once they were arranged comfortably near the fire most of them dropped off to sleep immediately. Brother lay on his stomach with his chin propped in his hands, heavy-lidded but alert, as Kitten curled up laying across his back. Smallest also didn't drop off straight away, but sat with his back to the wall, looking over the others with soft eyes. "Where are we going?" Brother asked, quietly so as not to disturb the others. Smallest smiled at him and leaned forwards to gently pinch his cheek.

"What do you mean, Brother?"

"Are we just going to keep moving forever?" He tried to pull away from the bothering hand, dropping his head down into his arms on the ground: Smallest shifted to combing his fingers through his hair, and Brother tolerated it with a sigh.

"I don't know." The piled cloths rustled as Smallest shifted closer to pet him more easily. "I don't think we're ready to stop. Maybe once we find a place that seems safe to stay? We need things like food and water and clothes, and a place where we can all be together, and a place where we're safe from anyone like _her_."

"The nice witches seemed to be scared of us," he murmured. "The brother and sister, too."

"I don't know why. We don't have any magic."

"That we know of," Brother pointed out, looking up, and Smallest made an agreeing sort of expression. "Laughter has _something_ , of course. The rest of us...." He trailed off into silence and shifted to look over his shoulder where Kitten had shifted to bury his face more deeply into his sweater. "Kitten's foot isn't fully healed yet, did you notice?"

"Oh, I noticed," Smallest replied very seriously.

"Do we heal more slowly now, along with needing food and rest and things? Could we be hurt so badly we can't heal?"

"That was possible even with her," Smallest said, and something in his voice made Brother lift himself up on his elbows, interrupting the combing fingers and fixing un-sleepy eyes on the other. Smallest folded his legs up and hugged them, a flexible knot of slender limbs. "When it was just her favorite and I--before I was Smallest, before he was her favorite--there were two others, as well. I don't know if she...enjoyed them less, or was incautious, or just wanted to see what happened...but they were broken so badly they didn't recover."

"She couldn't fix them?"

Smallest shrugged, playing with his fingers. "Couldn't? I don't know. She never fixed us, you realize. Our bodies fixed themselves. Maybe it was just _easier_ for her to make more--Broken and Loud came soon after. But things were different, then."

Brother lay his head down again. "Hmm. Kitten said I grew--is that so?"

"Oh, yes," Smallest said, scooting closer and starting to stroke his head again. "You were smaller, then--you were the Smallest, then. I owe you thanks, I think." The fingers stilled, just cupping the back of his head gently. "Before you came...it was as it was. It wasn't _good_ , but it was as it was. You were the first one who was smaller than me, and I felt.... I _felt_. Maybe for the first time? I hated her. When she hurt you, I hated her. I realized it. Then I realized that I loved you, just like I loved Broken's sideways looks, and Inked's spirit, and Loud's voice, and the way her favorite would laugh to himself in his cell as he recovered."

Brother pressed back into his hands, just slightly. "What would you love me for? I wasn't much of anything. I can't even remember it."

"Love is like that, I think," Smallest said, and his voice was full of all the things it was. Brother smiled to himself and tucked his face further into his arms. Smallest moved around to his side opposite Kitten and curled there, head in the hollow between his shoulder blades and hand stretched over to rest on Kitten's hand. "Maybe we'll find a place we don't want to leave. Then we can stop moving, I think."

Brother heard him: but only barely. And then he was asleep.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (idk fam, I'm not sure if this one came out any good? leave a comment if u like it, I'm starving here XD)


	5. Tried to Walk Closer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> setting is B1A4's Tried to Walk and Oh My Girl's Closer

 

 [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/39022610074/in/album-72157668553426829/)

 

  
After their sleep, Smallest, Laughter, and Brother woke up first. Following some low-voiced discussion between themselves, they tore strips from the thin cloths they had made their bedding out of and wrapped Sun's torn knees carefully, mindful of how the witch Amber had wrapped Kitten's foot to make the blood flow less and keep the wound clean as it healed. Sun awoke during their ministrations, confused and whiny, and had to be soothed into stillness by Laughter; Cedar and Kitten awoke more slowly. Eventually they were all up, and Smallest chivied them upstairs to drink from the sink again before going back down to the flower room with the door that had given Laughter pause last evening. They opened it--carefully, Brother and Cedar first--and looked through to find the room night-dark, lit faintly with cold moonlight and strange-burning lamps. The flowers, which had been so lively and beautiful in the sunlight, were all dead or dying, giving off a faint scent of rot and dropping darkened petals into broken furniture and shattered furnishings on the ground.

"There's your deceptive smell, Laughter," Brother said, cautiously inching into the room. "Was it like this then, as well, and the sun just hid it?"

Laughter hummed. "Maybe. It isn't well, to be sure, but I don't know that it's dangerous."

Everyone looked to Smallest.

"We could go upstairs instead," he offered. "Back down the outside of the building and off in another direction in the forest."

"I don't know about that," Cedar said. "I still feel like going forwards, and that feels like going back."

"I agree," Smallest said, holding his hand securely. "Unless someone really doesn't want to, I want to go forwards as well." No one argued: and they went.

The dead-flower room was quite large, but there was only one place to go--a staircase, that folded upwards, lit harshly by a grimy window through which the blue light poured. They went cautiously, avoiding the decomposing vegetation, up and up as the light changed and the stairs beneath their feet changed as well. "Is it bone?" Laughter asked uneasily. Kitten, who had been Broken, knew more about bone than the rest of them: he bent down to run his hands along the steps, touching his long fingers to his tongue and then straightening up and kicking strongly into a thin spire where the step became railing: it broke with a crack, and he nodded.

"They're so big," Sun said in hushed awe. "Is it one of Chanhyuk's dinosaurs, maybe? Or more than one!"

"Just as well it's dead," was Laughter's opinion.

As they went up it got colder, slowly at first then absolutely: the light became brighter but more diffuse, and the bone stairway gave ground to a strange outdoor environment, with more huge smooth bones arching up and grey clouds low overhead. Everything, the whole world was white, and they were quiet as they walked into it. Kitten and Smallest, who had no shoes, climbed without ceremony onto the backs of those who did--Kitten claiming Laughter, ignoring his protests that the blind shouldn't lead the blind, and Smallest comfortably ensconcing himself on Brother's broad back. There was a kind of path, barely more than a shallow groove but lined on occasion with thin fallen trees, and they followed it without any discussion.

Cedar, for once, was the one who dragged the word up: "Snow."

"It's so _quiet_ ," Sun said, quiet himself. "But a good kind of quiet...the air is cold but the quiet is warm and comfortable, like a blanket. The snow is beautiful, on the ground and on the trees, and I love the sound it makes when you walk on it. I like it. I like snow. I--" he cut himself off, frowning thoughtfully and leaning into Cedar's warm side.

"You want to be called Snow?" Cedar prompted, and Sun made a fretful face in response.

"I...no." He stopped in his tracks, right there in the snow, and the others stopped as well. "I don't. I like being called Sun. It's a good name. It's..." he tucked his chin and looked bashful. "Doesn't it suit me? Don't you think?"

Cedar, overcome with his cuteness, seized him around the waist and tucked his face into his shoulder. "It suits you perfectly," he insisted, voice muffled, and the others agreed.

"Sun is a wonderful name for you," Smallest said supportively, and jabbed Brother with his elbows until with rolled eyes he moved close enough for him to reach out and pet Sun's hair. "I love it too. You can change it later if you need to, but I think it's a wonderful name."

Sun beamed at them like his namesake and, with a surge of energy, plowed to the front of the group and took the job of breaking the path in the snow.

They walked for a long time, cold but happy, until they came to a pale brick wall that extended out further than they could see in either direction, broken only by an elaborate gate at the end of the path. Kitten and Smallest hopped down off the mostly-willing backs that had carried them and took the front as they went slowly through the gate. Behind it was a brick tunnel, lined with basins that filled with fire as they came close to them. They proceeded down it, though not as long or far downwards as they had gone up to get to the snowy place, and the walls around them changed to columns with dark indistinct space beyond. The downward passage became more and more refined and finished-looking until finally they found themselves on a landing of a flight of stairs: ahead of them was a stairway going up, mirror to the one they'd just come down, and to the right there was a wider, shorter stairway opening into a huge open place.

 

 [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/39022609974/in/album-72157668553426829/)

  
It was a room, part of some huge building perhaps, so big and open that the edges faded into trees and greenery. There was some strange device in the center of the room, and something off to the right fringe of green growth that had them all hesitating. Kitten was the one who finally moved, with a noise of sudden understanding, down the stairs and to the source of their hesitation. The others followed close behind, and they arrived together at the loose assemblage of small bodies. Kitten crouched down by the closest one, which wore a short white dress and whose face was covered with a long sweep of hair. He brushed the hair back and leaned his ear close to the figure's mouth. "Breathing," he informed the others, and pulled back a little to hesitantly shake the figure's shoulder. "Hello? Hello?"

There was no sign of waking; nor from the girl next to her, or the next, all the way to the sixth in her bright spill of red skirts and hand that still loosely grasped a golden apple.

"Golden apples, Laughter!" Sun cried out. "Let's look for the one that can help your eyes!" They gathered at the edge of the orchard, all but Kitten, who hung back with a concerned look pinching his eyebrows.

"Red and white," he said, "but there's only six. The girl, in the windy wood, she was looking for _seven_ sisters...."

"We can't tell them to go back to her if they're sleeping, anyway," Brother said, going back and tugging at the sleeve of his sweater. "Maybe the other one is awake...she might be in the trees, as likely as anywhere else anyway. Come on, we need to help look for the thing for Laughter!" Kitten allowed himself to be pulled away, though not without lingering glances at the sleeping bodies.

They looked for, oh, a very long time, until they were drooping from weariness and feeling sharp pangs of thirst: Laughter and Cedar each said at some point that the others needn't worry too much about finding the magical fruit, that they were okay as they were, but each time they were told to hush. The diffuse light never faded, which helped in their search. At one point, Brother dragged Laughter to a stop and covered his hands with his eyes. "Where should we go?"

"How should I know?" Laughter replied, very dry, and Brother removed one hand to hit him in the shoulder before replacing it.

"I don't know how any of us know anything, but here we are. Where should we look?"

Laughter didn't say anything, but one of his hands raised, a finger extending to point slowly leftwards. "Let's try it!" Sun said eagerly, and took over eye-covering duties from Brother. Laughter snorted, then broke down in giggles as Sun pulled him along, using him like a compass needle, with the others trailing behind. At one point Laughter set his heels, his laughter fading, and put his hand down, shrugging. "Got it," Sun said, and let go of him to start thoroughly investigating the trees around them. The others joined him, carefully looking over every twig on every branch on every tree: it was Brother who called them with a yelp.

"Here!" It was almost too high even for him to reach, but he stretched up on his toes and plucked it. They gathered around him to look at it, a simple-looking piece of fruit, green and red and giving off a fresh tempting spell.

"Good job, Brother!" Smallest said proudly, and held out his hands for the apple. He received it carefully and inspected it, cautious of a trick or mistake, then handed it over to Laughter. "Here you are," he said gently. "I hope it is delicious."

Laughter held it in his hands, which were smaller than Brother's or Smallest's and couldn't cover it entirely. He brought it up to his face and breathed in, smelling it gently, as the others watched in excitement to see how it would work. The pause was long, and Sun started to fidget: then with his sweetest smile, Laughter held the apple out to Cedar. "For you."

"For--?" Cedar took it from him, but reluctantly, looking to the others to see if they understood. "But, Laughter, your eyes...mine aren't...."

"It will serve you better, I think," Laughter said. He shook back his hair to show his own hexed eyes and blinked them, relaxed and soft. "I'm doing okay. I see things you all can't, and you all help me with what I can't do. This half-on, half-off business is no good for Cedar: he should be the one to take it."

"Laughter," Cedar said, his voice grown more husky with tears. "I don't...." Laughter reached out, unerringly, and grabbed his hand with the apple.

"Hush," he said, smiling still, and nudged the apple to his mouth. "Go on."

So Cedar did. He ate the outer part of the apple, the fibrous core, the pips and the soft woody stem that had held it to the tree. When it was eaten up they all waited for something to happen; it didn't take long, and he doubled over with a gruff shout, clapping his hands to his eyes. "Cedar? Cedar? You okay?" Brother said, sounding frightened for once, and reached for his hands to pull them away from his eyes. They were normal brown human eyes as he blinked at them, and Brother frowned. "Did it work? Try and flip them the other way." Cedar closed them, frowning, then groaned and dropped into a crouch. They all watched in astonishment as the inked patterns on his chest and shoulders and face started to break up and fade out.

"Were they like a curse too? Good job, apple!" Sun said. It took a minute for the patterns to fade completely, then Cedar got to his feet with Brother's help and blinked at them all dazedly.

"Your hands," Smallest said, concerned, and Cedar raised them up and turned them over, showing the star on the back of one and the abstract pattern on the other.

"I kind of like these ones," Cedar mumbled.

"Smart apple," Sun said approvingly, and patted Cedar vigorously. Cedar was blinking more and more, fighting back tears now, and he stumbled forwards to half-collapse onto Laughter.

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice a little strangled, and Laughter embraced him, slightly teary himself but still smiling.

"Shut up," Laughter said, patting his back. "I'm glad." Cedar pulled back, sniffling, and wiped at his nose with the hand with the star.

"We should call you Kindness instead of Laughter," he said seriously.

"I was thinking Sense!" Sun said. "Because he has such good sense, and he can sense things we can't! It's a good name, right?"

"Or Wit," said Brother, smiling.

"Actually...." Laughter said slowly, "...I like Laughter. It feels right. I don't know that I'll ever want to change." Smallest made a faint noise and embraced him in his clinging way and Laughter rolled his eyes but didn't resist him.

"It was me that picked it," Kitten said, self-satisfied, and got hit on the back for his smugness. He looked at the perpetrator--Brother--with a deeply offended expression, but didn't appear any less pleased with himself.

"It was," Laughter said. "Thank you."

 

They left the orchard, slowly, Cedar insisting on going in front to use his newly-cured eyes to lead the way. When they got to the big chamber at the center they sobered again, stepping lightly around the sleeping bodies. "Still didn't wake up," Laughter said. "Is it some kind of curse, do you think?" Kitten, who had started scanning over everything they hadn't looked at yet, was the first to notice a flicker of movement by the biggest tree in the room. He made a quiet interested sound and loped over, the others following belatedly behind. Near the big tree was a wall that actually was a mirror, grimy and cracked but still clearly a mirror: what was strange about it was that while it dimly reflected them as they approached it, it more strongly reflected something other than the room they were in, a place darker and more overgrown. Kitten leaned towards the mirror and knocked it, gently, with his knuckles. As the others arrived they lined up, and watched as a figure gradually came into view in the mirror.

It was a girl, slender and indistinct, wearing a long flowing red cloak with a hood that covered her hair. As she raised the lantern she held her face became more clearly visible, even through the sorry state of the mirror. Her lips made the shape of _Hello_ , but with no sound.

"Are these your sisters?" Smallest asked her. She watched his mouth closely, and he repeated the question, more slowly and clearly. She nodded, and her lips curved sharply downwards.

"You are all sisters to the girl in the windy wood?" Kitten asked, trying to shape the words distinctly, and she nodded again. "Are you stuck? Can we help you?" The girl's mouth wobbled and she shrugged. She stood up on her tiptoes like she was trying to see past them, and they parted to let her look. She gazed on the sleeping girls for a long moment.

_I don't think you can help_ , her mouth shaped. _Or at least I don't know how._

"Is there anything we need to be cautious of, so we don't get cursed or trapped too?" Brother asked her. Her frown turned thoughtful, and she started to shrug, but then angled herself and pointed as best she could in the general direction of the stairs. "The stairs?" He confirmed, and she nodded, making a firm X with her arms. "Where do we go then?"

"There's a door in the tree," Cedar said. They all turned to look and saw what he spoke of.

"Is that one okay?" Brother asked the girl in the mirror. She looked back at him, and her face said How would I know? "I guess we just have to try it."

"Your sister misses you," Kitten told her, quietly. "She wants you to please go back. If you can." She smiled at him, sadly. _How?_ she asked, and she and he sighed together.

"If we find a way to help them we can," Smallest said gently into his ear, and led him away by the hand. He went, but not without a backwards look and the smallest of helpless waves. The last thing he saw was her wave in response, and then they were through the door in the tree.


	6. (Dream Part.02)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> setting is Astro's MV for 니가 불어와 

 

 [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/24862385797/in/album-72157668553426829/)

 

Behind the door was a room, and they filed into it. The room was a mess, but in a way that seemed warm and lived-in more than a sign that something had happened. Huge windows with thin curtains were dimly lit with a warm pink sunset glow, and the walls were lined with big iron-framed beds. They filtered through the room, each investigating one or another part of it. "Laughter," Sun said in a moment, quietly, "is this...?" Laughter came to him, where he was crouched by one of the beds and pointing at something half-under it. It was a little animal doll, he saw, a four-limbed creature he didn't recognize, with soft wool hair and buttons for eyes. "How would we know?"

Laughter pulled it out, but slowly, and weighed it in his hands; then his arm shot into the air as he held it over his head. He and Sun both looked around in interest, alert to a real live animal going up into the air or a thump from a nearby room, but there was no sign of either. "It must not be connected to anything," he said, and handed the stuffed animal to Sun who squished it experimentally and then held it close, patting its soft head. A startled noise hearalded Kitten finding another doll, and Sun sprang up.

"I'll check it!" he said, and went to so do. All in all there were 9 stuffed dolls, some more human-shaped, some more clearly animals, but they all seemed to simply be inanimate.

"What are they used for?" Brother asked.

"Nothing, I think," Smallest said. Sun had collected them all on one of the beds and he added the one he had found to the gathering. "They are just meant to be cute."

"Cute but useless," Brother said, far too innocently. "Kind of like Sun?" Smallest went to him and hit him on the back of the neck, not hard but repeatedly: Sun on the other hand, took it as a compliment and just grinned at him.

There was a shower, and Smallest bullied everyone into it despite several objections that they were clean enough; everyone also drank the water from the sink, not needing to be persuaded into that. By the time they all were done the sun was down completely, and the room only dimly visible with faint bluish light. They settled into some of the beds, two by two--Brother and Cedar, Kitten and Sun, Laughter and Smallest. They didn't drop off to sleep as quickly this time, lying in comfortable quiet, the room only filled with the sound of faint creaks from the beds, little insect noises from outside, their breaths. Laughter was so filled with sourceless happiness that his cheeks hurt from smiling, and he curled his arms into his chest and scooted closer to Smallest until they were nested together like two spoons.

 

He didn't know when he fell asleep, but he awoke some time during the night to find that he was alone in the bed. He sat up, not bothering to open his eyes, and stifled a yawn in his hands, trying to sense where Smallest had gone. "Over here," the delicate voice called quietly to him, and he eased himself out of the bed and shuffled to the window where Smallest pulled him to his side. "Can you see them, Laughter? Stars." Laughter opened his eyes and focused as best he could; they always worked better in the dark, and although it probably wasn't close to what Smallest was seeing he nodded.

"Yes. Has there always been so many?"

"I think so," Smallest said. "They don't last forever, but there are new ones being born all the time, so the sky is never _not_ full of them."

"We can't see them when the sun is out," Laughter pointed out, leaning his face against the window frame and enjoying the sensation of the cool metal on his sleep-warm cheeks.

"No, it's too bright. But that's okay." He tilted his face up and smiled. Laughter had always privately rather thought that Smallest had the most beautiful smile out of all of them. "They are beautiful whether we are looking at them or not. The colors! They look white when you first see them, but actually they are every color there is. I never much liked the dark."

Laughter patted his arm, sliding his hand down to hold his fingertips. "I can see in the dark pretty well, Smallest. It really is a good thing we didn't try to change my eyes--if there is ever anything in the dark I'll know about it and tell you."

"Thank you, Laughter," he said, pulling him upright so he could tilt his head against his shoulder. "You know...you were always _my_ favorite, too."

"Except when Kitten was your favorite," he said, fondly. "Or Brother, then Sun, then Cedar...."

Smallest hummed, not denying it, and they just looked out at the night together for a while. "I found it," he said eventually, voice full of a good and glad secret.

"Oh?"

"Starlight." He lifted his head up and smiled at him. "It's a good name, isn't it?"

Laughter rolled it around in his head, then in his mouth. "Starlight. Yes. It is perfect." Starlight, who had been Smallest, smiled at him more widely than he'd ever seen before, and he pulled him away from the window on impulse. "Come on, we have to tell the others."

"But La--they're sleeping, Laughter!"

"When they wake up the stars will be hidden," Laughter replied, no longer keeping his voice low. "They need to be up long enough so they'll understand your name." He reached the bed where Brother and Cedar were sleeping and flopped down perpendicularly across their backs. "Cedar. Cedar. Cedar. Wake up." Cedar merely grumbled, but Brother was blinking awake and looking bewildered. "Brother, help me wake everyone up, they have to learn our eldest brother's new name." Brother rolled his eyes, sleepy and disdainful, but got up without any more complaint.

It took a while for everyone to be up, but they were herded to the window and introduced to Starlight's namesake...and even through their sleepy daze, everyone together agreed that it was a good name. It was peaceful, and they might have stayed up longer, but Kitten leaned bonelessly against Starlight's shoulder and made a disgruntled noise. Starlight laughed. "Come on, kids. Time for sleeping." Reluctant to part, they all piled into one bed this time--or tried to: the beds weren't small but neither were they sized for 6 tall men to share. Brother gave up first and dragged bedding from one of the other beds over and sprawled out on the floor near the shared bed. Kitten lay along his back and he groaned.

"Am I a mattress?"

"Maybe I'm a blanket," Kitten said, gently knuckling his head down onto the floor, and sprawled more heavily still.

  
They awoke slowly, comfortably, as the sunlight began to creep across the whole room. The four on the bed slid down, one by one, to join Kitten and Brother on the floor. Everyone sat in a circle and looked to Starlight. "What is it?" He asked them.

"Where are we going now?" Brother said. "You said we'd keep moving until we find someplace we don't want to leave."

Starlight, who had somehow engulfed the taller Cedar entirely in his limbs, smiled at him. "Well, we don't have to keep moving. It's each other we don't want to leave. Even if the place is no better than 'okay', won't it feel safe as long as we're all there?"

"The poor girl in the windy wood," Kitten said softly, from where he was half-wrapped around Laughter. "All her sisters have gone. I can't think about living alone."

"We might could find some way to help her," Cedar suggested slowly. "Or just to let her know where they are?"

"Maybe Amber and the other witches would know a way to help," Kitten added, lifting his head in increasing interest. "They knew how to fix Cedar's eyes."

"Wouldn't that feel like going backwards?" Laughter said.

"I don't know," Starlight replied, smiling at him like they shared a secret. "Maybe it will feel like going _to_ instead of just _away_."

There was a moment of silence as they thought about it, and the sunlight became brighter and brighter in the room. "...well, _I_ want to see Chanhyuk's dinosaurs!" Sun burst out. Kitten and Starlight muffled laughs in their hands; the others weren't so restrained. "What?" he said, pouting but with eyes bright. "We were talking about going that way, I want to see something as big as a dinosaur!"

"I _am_ curious what lies to the other side of the edifice," Laughter said through giggles.

Starlight pulled back, and beamed at them all more brightly than the stars could. "We have enough time to see it all. Don't you think?"

They did.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have it! Thank you for you time, and if you liked it--please let me know! ^^ VIXX 화이팅! 


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